PERSONAL INJURY BLOG

Here is a list that won't have too many surprises for any Los Angeles personal injury attorney. Thedailybeast.com has compiled a list of the top 100 deadliest and most crash-prone highways in the country. At least two California highways feature in the top 10 on the list.

The list rates highways based on the number of fatal accidents that occurred on the highways during summer between 2004 and 2008, the number of fatal accidents per mile, and the total number of fatalities that occurred on the highway. The data includes accident information during June, July and August of 2004, through June, July and August of 2008.

Interstate 15 in California comes in at number four on the list. This highway runs across more than 207 miles. Between summer of 2004 and summer of 2008, there were 437 fatal accidents on this stretch of highway, and these resulted in a total of 506 fatalities. That made it an average of 1.52 fatal accidents per mile.

At number five was Interstate 10 which runs across more than 242 in-state miles. Between summer of 2004 and summer 2008, there were a total of 341 fatal accidents on this road and these resulted in a total of 387 fatalities. This highway had an average of 1.41 fatal accidents per mile. There are a number of other California highways that feature in the top 100.

Not all the highways are dangerous because they are badly maintained or poorly designed. In fact, California has a pretty decent record in road maintenance. Some states like New Jersey have traditionally had some of the worst highways in the country. That's why you find so many New Jersey highways on the list.

However, California’s highways might be more dangerous because they're used by larger numbers of motorists. There are other internal factors that contribute to high fatality rates on a highway. For instance, low seat belt usage rates translate into high fatality numbers. That means that there are some highways in the country on which failing to buckle up, could be akin to suicide.

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